Ofcom complaints topped by TalkTalk and 3

While it may seem like small fry initially, Ofcom have said that 0.14 in every 1,000 complaints they receive is about 3. However, if you consider that this is more than double the number of complaints made about the next-worst (Orange and Virgin Media), you know they've got a problem.

Even though Ofcom have highlighted 3's problems before, complaints have increased further.

A 3 spokesman, said: "We have improved the way we handle complaints over the past few months and saw a significant reduction in complaints in the early part of the summer, so it is disappointing to see these results."

As for broadband providers, TalkTalk topped the table for the fourth consecutive quarter. That said, complaints have fallen.

"It's encouraging that complaints continue to come down," TalkTalk said in a statement.

Ofcom's data is based on complaints it receives and does not include complaints made directly to service providers, so maybe everyone else is just as bad, but they're more keen to get their customers to ring them as opposed to going somewhere else for help?

Just a thought.

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23 comments

Alexis

Ordered a PAYG phone off 3 on 14th Dec. Email said delivery 15th Dec.
It still hasn't arrived. Can't get through on the phone.
So I've had to pop a distance selling regs letter in the post cancelling the whole thing and I'll have to traipse into town to buy one instead.

Mobile: 3
Internet: Talk Talk
TV: The Sky
Post: Royal Mail
Delivered Goods: Yodel
I might as well go and live in a frickin' cave and try to survive on berries and stones for all the 'service' I get from the above.

Curiously I've been a 3 customer for many years now and on the handful of occasions I've had to call customer services I have had no problems, if anything I have nothing but praise for them. Maybe I'm just lucky?

I too have been a customer of 3 for over 10 years and found the to be great. i have had to question a bill once and was offered a refund for the over charge.
Reception and service is good, i would not bother changing to one of the other operators as i have had problems with them.

I have just paid to get out of my contract with Talk Talk. Money well spent. Customer service is a joke, reading off a script of reasons why broadband was not working. On investigation none were true but simply designed to fob customers off for a few days. Technical support had no idea what they were doing and I was suprised they didn't recommend hitting the pc with a stick. Fixed problem myself in the end. Speeds eventually got so slow that I had to just bugger off. On telling Talk Talk this it was all 'oh well we have a higher level of technical support than you were offered and we can cut £10 a month off your bill etc'. Why didn't they offer me all that at the time of the initial problem? Because they are always Talk Talking utter bollocks.

I have Three monthly mobile broadband at £15 for 5GB. Its OK up to a point, but slows down considerably during the working day. But then I can go into any Pret and get wifi for free - so I only use the dongle on a train or in a hotel. However my main gripe with Three is that using MyThree website I can never get the true data allowance left on my account. The usage figures are only ever refreshed every few hours or so. This is critical on the last few days before the new monthly top-up. Going 'over-drawn' incurs VERY EXPENSIVE PENALTY PAYMENTS. Time and again I gave raised this issue with Customer Services - and always I am promised that the technical team will look into it - yet nothing happens. So I have to ensure that at the end of the month I have to leave a margin of 200MB of data in case MS decides to download an unannounced update or something. If I don't use that 200MB - which I have paid for - then I simply lose it at the next top-up. It doesn't roll over. that to my mind is fraud and theft. But then all other mobile telcos are worse.

When i had an issue with a mobile i had with three, i had to send it for repair. Three provided a loan phone. But, it had someone elses contacts, personal voice recordings and their personal email address details. A breach of the Data protection act. Three's response from a manager in store, shrugged shoulders and told to take it up with their overseas contact centre. They couldnt care less. The shops are only there to sell. Keeping in mind this was a store issue. I attempted to take my complaint up with customer care. I sent several emails, and they were all responded to by a standard email, advising that the details i provided were incorrect. This wasnt true. They were just clearing their inboxes. Extremely unproffessional. They also advised i should provide password details over email. This is not safe. I also sent my complaint to the CEO. Unfortunaltey they directed my email to the overseas contact centre. I had got nowhere with their contact centres and had sent the email to the CEO office as i believed they may have attempted to resolve the issue. I was wrong. They cleared their inbox. Again, very unproffessional.
This is a reasonably young company and unfortunatly nobody with any experience is in control. They have to remove their " customer service" department from overseas and locate them closer to their customers.
Three may offer good deals, but they have no knowledge or appreciation of customer care. I would strongly advise against this company. Pay the additonal fees with other companies, but ensure their customer services are up to the job, as from experience i can confirm Three's customer services are appalling. The best thing that i can hope for with three, is that a professional established business buys them out and introduces their own values.

@ C J Brady
I had a similar problem with my car - the fuel gague was busted and I kept on using all of my fuel and then had to pay upper case penalty payments to be rescued.
Then I took the initiative and had my fuel gague fixed. Never had a problem since, except for having to tolerate wankers using upper case.
The equivalent solution related to an internet fuel gaugue is called a bandwidth monitor.
Take some upper case responsible action - bandwidth monitors are available from various legitimate download websites for the grand total of upper case zero cost.
Don't forget to allow for the bandwidth used in downloading the bandwidth monitor, just in (upper) case you wish to scupper any excessive bandwidth upper case penalty charges.

@CJ Brady
Why not call up Three on 0843 373 0500* and ask to cap the account? Then you'll never go over your monthly charge.
*Call free on 500 from a Three mobile. Calls to 0843 numbers cost up to 5p a minute from BT landlines, but may be charged differently from other operators.

bt are crap for customer service,virgin leave you waiting for half an hour,and tesco's have fake sale's and crap price deals,they think the public are muppets and dont see that they put prices up then have a sale and charge normal prices,which are still more than anywhere else.

I've been with 3 for years and never had any major issues apart from two occasions where a local mast was causing problems and they credited my account accordingly.
Don't know what most people would moan about really, they don't repair phones in house!! It's a third party etc, probably something they need to review.
Great speeds, service and price, no point looking anywhere else.

In a way I am glad I am not the only one to be having problems with 3. They delivered with ease the worst customer services experience(s) of my life. A portion of the problem lies with me for being suckered into a 2 year contract with them on the basis of what looked like a fabulous deal but now it's plain to see why they need to offer such deals to attract and keep customers.
In their defense, the sales and repairs teams are actually fairly good and without meaning to kick of some racial argument are all full of staff of which English is their first language. But, their complaints and regular phone line has, in my experiences at least, been so embarrassingly poor it is unreal. They will do absolutely everything they can not to refund you for poor service - poor service in my case including a faulty smart phone that required to be sent off for repairs twice, being without full services for over a month and still not receiving a refund as during this period I apparently had access to full services (not top of the line smartphone services mind you). That's just the tip of the iceberg mind you, plenty more to complain about grumpy style.
To make things worse, their online complaints system doesnt even work. i tried it at least half a dozen times on various different browsers each time having to phone and find out that it was never recorded and then asked to complain over the phone - something I am not prepared to repeatedly go through with people who do not understand English.
Anyway, rant over. Glad I got that off my chest. Still waiting on a response from 3 and that's been about 4 months now. i genuinely can't wait until I can cancel this contract at no cost to me.

And having just read a post a few above mine I too got a replacement phone full of contacts, images, various data from the previous unfortunate person to deal with their repairs system. To make things worse, the phone included bank details (not sure if previous owner or a friend) in the messages. Of course, you souldnt be texting your bank details but then these phones should be wiped and checked before handing out. Like everything else, 3 couldnt care less about this.

Ive been a customer of '3' for a fair bit since 2005 if I recall correctly. Ive had no problems with 3. I dont get a yearly handset upgrade because I want to stay on my old tariff.
I just buy a PAYG handset when the price is right. However I have one gripe with them recently, which hasnt led to a positive result, is that, I waited for the nokia C7-00 or C6-01 to become available via '3' on PAYG at a reasonable price (like the usually do when new handsets come out). However for some strange reason it hasnt even been a year & those particular handsets have disappeared altogether from '3'.

Read the actual Ofcom report, what you've posted is wrong, its not
"0.14 in every 1,000 complaints", its that they've receive 0.14 complaints for every thousand customers.
http://media.ofcom.org.uk/2011/12/20/ofcom-publishes-latest-telecoms-complaints-data/
"Ofcom’s data shows that from July to September 2011 it received the most complaints about 3UK, with 0.15 complaints per 1000 customers. The complaints against 3UK have been largely driven by complaints relating to disputed charges and customer service issues. There has also been an increase in complaints against Virgin Mobile over the last quarter. This rise also appears to be driven largely by billing and customer service issues."
And also
"The complaints data reflects the views of consumers as reported to Ofcom. Ofcom has sought to ensure that its data is sound but has not checked the veracity of individual complaints."
So in short anyone can send a letter to Ofcom complaining about company X, and they'll note it as a complaint against X even if the person isn't a customer.
This Ofcom report seems to have been terribly misreported by most of the media outlets and blogs, can we at least get a little bit of fact checking first?

I’m currently in, how can I put it? “Discussions” with TalkTalk about my late fathers phone and broadband account. I wont go into detail as things are still on going however having contacted them to tell them of my fathers death, instead of closing the account as requested, it was kept open and a bill that was under £40 is now £150. Following a very detailed letter from me listing all the dates and details of my calls, letters and emails and explaining why I objected to the bill they sent me , I got a 2 page letter in reply. Not only did they not address my concerns they didn’t even mention them. In fact the letter they sent had a five line paragraph saying the bill “was this”, “then this”, and increased “to this” with no explanation as to why and the remaining page and ¾ just gave different ways of paying the bill. I have absolutely no problem paying what my father owes but I’m not prepared to pay charges that have arisen after I asked for the account to be closed. According to their last letter, my enquiry has been “escalated” and will be actioned within 7 days. This is now the 2nd time they’ve escalated it and nothing happened last time so it will be interesting to see what the response is this time.

Three have not answered any emails and have charged me for an upgrade that was supposed to be free. They still have not given me the code to take my phone number to another provider. Customer service is a joke, every time I speak to someone they tell me a different story.